The present invention relates to a reversible thermosensitive recording material capable of recording images and deleting the same reversibly by utilizing the property that its transparency changes reversibly from a transparent state to an opaque state, and vice versa, depending upon the temperature thereof.
Conventionally there are proposed reversible thermosensitive recording materials capable of performing such reversible recording and deleting images, which comprise a support and a reversible thermosensitive recording layer in which an organic low-molecular-weight material, such as a higher alcohol and a higher fatty acid, is dispersed in a resin such as polyester and polyamide, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications 54-119377 and 55-154198. In these reversible thermosensitive recording materials, the property that the transparency of the recording layer changes in accordance with the temperature thereof is utilized for forming images and deleting the same in the recording layer.
Such conventional reversible thermosensitive recording materials, however, have the shortcoming that clear images cannot always be obtained easily by a heat application means such as a thermal head which comes into contact with the surface of the recording layer. This is because the friction between the surface of the recording layer and such heat application means is so large that it is difficult to bring the heat application means into close contact with the surface of the recording layer and accordingly high thermosensitivity cannot be obtained.
Another shortcoming of the conventional reversible thermosensitive recording materials is that the image formation and deletion performance degrades while in repeated use.
A further shortcoming of the conventional reversible thermosensitive recording materials is that when the formation and deletion of images are repeated by using a heat application means such as a thermal head, the surface of the recording materials is deformed by the heat and pressure applied by the heat application means, so that the formed images are deformed or the portions to be made transparent tends to become opaque due to the reduction in transparency of the recording materials.